14 July 2014

Planes

Cars was not a great film.Cars 2
was even worse.Only because I am a
glutton for punishment and my two-year-old loves all types of transportation, I
rented Planes from the local
library.The trailer was nothing
special.The box office run was
sufficient enough to spawn a sequel the following year, coming out this Friday.The voice cast is led by Dane “My TV Show Got
Cancelled Before It Aired an Episode” Cook.This was a direct-to-video film that Disney decided to give a small
theatrical push.Remember, Toy Story 2 was supposed to go
direct-to-video as well.Things were not
looking good for this 90 minute flick, but I hit PLAY anyway.

Planes opens with Dusty (Cook)
daydreaming of racing against to Navy Fighter planes, and winning.Why is this sequence a daydream?He is a crop duster plane.He dreams of being a racing plane, and his
good buddy Chug (Brad Garrett), a fuel truck, tries to help Dusty achieve his
dream.Dusty tries to appeal the competitive spirit
of an old WWII Corsair named Skipper (Stacy Keach), but is denied.Dottie (Teri Hatcher), the local mechanic at
the airport, thinks that racing is a bad idea for Dusty, as he is not designed
for it.

Nothing will
deter the crop duster, and Dusty goes to the local time trials.After a stupendous lap, he places sixth, otherwise
known as the first loser.Saddened he
goes home.Later, the fifth place
qualifier is disqualified for performance enhancing drugs, and Dusty is allowed
to compete.Now, Skipper decides to
help.After a training montage, Dusty
arrives in NYC to start the Seven Leg race around the world.

Yes, most of
the characters are transplants from Cars.Chug = Mater.Skipper = Doc.Dottie =
Sally.Yes, the story is similar.But, what Planes
did better than Cars is streamlined
the story.It is almost a full half-hour
shorter.A lot of reviews I read just
complained about it being bland, unoriginal, and a rip-off.To that, I agree.I can explain it, but I really enjoyed Planes.

The voice
cast is another shining aspect.Other
than the ones I already mentioned and John Cleese, the rest of relative
nobodies that really excelled when given the chance.The main villain, Ripslinger is voiced by
Roger Craig Smith.He is an accomplished
voice actor, but no one knows him.Another competitor, El Chupacabre is voiced by Carlos Alazraqui.Again, a veteran voice actor with no mainstream
appeal.Maybe, paying all that money to
big name actors to voice every role, some money can be saved, and the quality can
be heightened with a slightly lesser known cast.Just a thought.

I have since
rented it again, and decided to go ahead and buy it.There is just something in the story and the
characters I love.The score by Mark
Mancina is great.The original songs are
fun.I truly believe that the song “Nothing
Can Stop Me Now” was missed by the Academy.

Is Planes on the same plane as Toy Story 2?Hell no!It is still better than Cars, Cars
2, Brave, and I will say it, Wall-E.I am excited for this weekend’s sequel, Planes: Fire and Rescue.My only concern is that Dusty seems like now
he wants to fight forest fires.Maybe
Dusty should just stick to crop dusting or racing.Still, the movie looks entertaining.

Who is the Hairy Man?

I recently got a position with insideSTL.com as a movie critic. I will be posting on there once a week and here the rest of the time. I plan to post links between the sites to increase cross traffic. That means I should post 1 new review a week, at least!